


A Gift from Bob

by mercutiglo



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Emotions, Feelings, eiffel gets his memory back, it gets a little angsty but then it ends happy, so yeah that's cool, spoilers for the finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 21:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13466625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercutiglo/pseuds/mercutiglo
Summary: Um, so basically Bob does an A+ thing for Eiffel and just there's a whole lot of emotions because Douglas Eiffel is a complex person.





	A Gift from Bob

It had been a quiet couple of months since they had all returned to Earth. Goddard Futuristics gave them a big house they could all live in while they recovered and went through company approved debriefing and therapy, but basically as soon as they got Hera and all of their remaining few possessions, and enough money to keep them situated for a while, Jacobi and Lovelace blew the place up. Dramatically. They took really cool videos of it to show the others too, even though Eiffel and Pryce didn’t really understand exactly why there was so much hatred from this seemingly nice company that was taking care of them. Minkowski got the job of explaining that one. 

But Minkowski didn’t really complain about having to explain things to Eiffel. She didn’t care if Pryce was listening or not, but she cared about Eiffel. And even the stories that were really difficult for her to remember, and have to tell Eiffel about, she practically volunteered to do it. One time Lovelace asked why she didn’t let herself or Jacobi or Hera try and explain things, and all she got was a glare from Minkowski that sent Lovelace cowering to Jacobi’s room for the rest of the day. Hera tried to ask her once as well, seeing as she couldn’t really be harmed by Minkowski because she was programmed into the house that they were given by Goddard, but everyone else could tell something was…. Off about Hera the next few days, and when Minkowski was asked what she thought she just said “Hm. Nothing seems wrong to me.” (Even though she eventually fixed whatever she had messed with, on the promise that Hera would never ask that question again.)

But Minkowski did consult the others, and they all agreed not to talk about Bob and the rest of the Dear Listeners. Eiffel didn’t need to know that at one point there was an alien race with a direct line into Eiffel’s brain, that they sounded like him, and oh yeah that Lovelace was actually part of that race and gave Eiffel a blood transfusion once? They all agreed that he didn’t need to know, and Pryce definitely didn’t need to know. 

 

So it came as a surprise to all of them when Eiffel came downstairs one morning and asked “Guys? Have I ever talked to someone with the exact same voice as me before? Named Bob?”

The screaming and fighting and blaming that ensued didn’t really answer Eiffel’s question, but definitely confirmed for him that the answer was “Yes.” He went into the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, and then turned around and just went back up to his room to figure out who this “Bob” character speaking into his mind was.

 

“Hey, um, Bob? Was that your name?” Eiffel said out loud, causing Hera to start saying something along the lines of “Eiffel, no, wait” before he muted her in his room, and locked his door and scooted his dresser in front of it to prevent the human members of the house from trying to interrupt his pursuit of knowledge of whatever the hell was going on. 

“Yes, Eiffel, that is what you decided to call us. And you don’t need to speak out loud. I’m…. More or less in your head. But there’s no need to speak out loud.”

“Okay cool. So back to the big picture -  Who are you?”

“What do - Oh yes. When your AI had to keep our secrets from that Pryce woman, I had momentarily forgotten that your AI had to completely remove our presence from your brain. We are an alien species that made contact with you when - You know, Doug Eiffel, there is an easier way for us to tell you all of this information.”

“Um, okay. What is it?”

“Hold still. This IS going to hurt.”

Even though he was told it was going to hurt, he was nowhere near prepared for the completely agonizing pain that swept through his brain like a wave, causing him to scream and fall to the floor. Had he been able to use any of his senses, he would have heard the others all banging at his door, calling out his name, trying to make sure that he was still alive. Pryce was the only one who didn’t catch the worried look that was shared between Lovelace, Jacobi, and Minkowski, who could all guess what was happening to Eiffel at that exact moment, considering their knowledge of what such an all-knowing, ridiculously powerful being could do.

Eiffel felt overwhelmed by the number of memories and emotions that were all being crammed into his brain, and at the striking familiarity of all of it. He even remembered the prequels, which he was honestly better off having not remembered, but then he remembered Pryce destroying those memories, and he decided he would no longer talk so much shit about them. It only took a few moments for Bob to give Eiffel all of his memories back, but it felt like an eternity. And, even worse, it made him feel like an absolute piece of garbage. “We’ve had record of all of your memories, and we’ve been intending to reach out to you to share them, but the amount of technology surrounding this house has been preventing even us from being able to talk to you. Also it was a process of slowly re-opening your mind to our form of communication. We’ll leave you be now, you need time to process, and reconnect with your crew members. But if you need us, let us know.” And just like that, Eiffel felt the foreign presence leave his mind, leaving a small indentation of space in the huge amount of information that was piled back into his brain.

The emotions that were the most overwhelming were, surprisingly in all this “new” information, the feelings of loss: Hilbert, Maxwell, even Cutter and Kepler. But one was filling up his heart and his eyes with tears: Anne. How had Minkowski never told him about his daughter? How could she keep something she knew was so important to him from him? The fact that Lovelace was part of the alien species? Why did they bring her to Earth? Why didn’t they leave Miranda Pryce out there, even if she didn’t even know what she did? Eiffel stayed where he was, lying on the floor, thinking through all the things he had forgotten, all the things he had had taken away from him by Hera and Pryce.

It was a few hours before he spoke to anyone - he had been so caught up in his own thoughts, and probably fell asleep for a few hours. When he stood up to go to the panel that allowed Hera access to each of their rooms so that he could stop being a dick to her, he noticed his cup of coffee he had placed on his desk. He had wondered why coffee was truly so important to the others, even though he had the whole coffee debacle explained to him, but he picked it up and took a sip and felt actual joy at just how /real/ it was. It wasn’t all a dream. He really did have his memories back. He pressed the button on the control panel. “Hey, Hera?”

“Yes Eiffel?” She sounded so concerned, but in a way that she was clearly failing at concealing.

“I just wanted to say, I’m back, baby. Also, where are the others?”

“Well, Pryce has already gone to bed. I really don’t understand how she goes to sleep so early and I track her sleep patterns. The others are all sitting downstairs watching TV. Jacobi made dinner earlier, they weren’t sure if you were coming out of your room again today, so they put the leftovers in the fridge for you.”

“Well, that is handy because I am starving. And would really like to eat something before I go yell at Minkowski for that stunt she pulled before I lost all the memories that I just gained back. And also, I need to have at least a few words with Jacobi about lying.”

 

Hera warned the others that Eiffel was awake and confrontational, but didn’t quite get a chance to drop the kicker before he came down the steps. Lovelace paused whatever show they were watching and turned to look at where he was in the kitchen. Amidst the silence, he went from looking in the fridge to looking at the three people who had kept all these secrets from him. “What? I’m hungry, and Hera said that you guys put some leftovers in the fridge?”

Minkowski was the only one who was able to shake herself out of it. “Oh, um, yes. We did. It’s pesto pasta, it should be on the top shelf of the fridge.”

Eiffel turned back from their staring faces. “Top shelf…. Ah, here we go. Thank you, Minkowski. You guys don’t have to pause your show just because I’m down here. What is that, Dollhouse? I’ve already seen it.”

They had all turned back towards the TV, but the faces that slowly turned towards him were pale as sheets. They had been intentionally watching it without Eiffel or Pryce in case it triggered something disastrous (more concerned about Pryce than Eiffel, considering they actually wanted his memory back more or less.) “....What?” was all that was able to come out of Lovelace.

Eiffel had a smug look on his face that was barely hiding his anger. “Oh, yeah. That’s right. I know other things too. That Dumbledore dies? That Jar Jar Binks is the actual worst character to have ever existed in the history of film? Oh, and Minkowski, I figured out who I am: 24601. And Jacobi, I know you’ve been playing some Brokeback Mountain sort of schtick, but the game is up.” Jacobi’s face turned bright red. It’s not as though the others didn’t know that he had, well, convinced Eiffel that there was something happening between the two of them before he lost his memory, but it also wasn’t as though he thought Eiffel would ever quite come to his senses to know that he was making that all up. Eiffel had simply sat down at the island in the kitchen, and the others decided to turn off the TV and go into the kitchen so they could talk with the visibly upset Eiffel. They all sat on the other side of the island from the man drinking his coffee and eating his pasta, glaring at them in silence. When he was finished, they all shared small glances with each other, knowing that they were about to be in for a seriously emotional ride.

“So. Eiffel.”

“Minkowski.”

“Was…. Were we right?”

“Right about what, Commander? I want to hear you say it.”

Hera started to interject. “Look, Eiffel-” 

“No no, Hera? I want to know. Because if she’s asking if they were right in what they told me, there were a lot of REALLY BIG GAPS that they left out for me.”

Lovelace started to interject next. “We tried to tell -

“There is no try, Lovelace! Do or do not! You either tell me the truth, or you don’t. There is not a “try” when it comes to DOING THE RIGHT THING and TELLING THE TRUTH.”

“Eiffel! You need to calm down enough for us to explain things. Because if you don’t let us explain things, then you’re going to keep being annoyed, and angry, and then we’re going to get annoyed and angry, and believe me, I’ve been having a great time since we got back, and no one wants to remember annoyed and angry Lovelace. So you’re going to shut the fuck up and let us explain things. You can ask questions CALMLY. Okay?”

The reminder of how threatening Lovelace can truly be, and actually remembering all the situations in which she was able to remain scarily calm managed to knock something in Eiffel’s head back into place where he was able to chill out a little bit to realize he was being a bit out of control. He knew they did what they could, but it wasn’t just hard for him, it was hard for them as well. “I…. Yes. I’m sorry. Lovelace, you’re correct. I’m gonna have to start my questions with Jacobi though.” 

Jacobi’s face turned beet red as he looked down at the countertop. “Ya know, I think I can guess where those questions are gonna go, what they’re gonna be, and I, um, don’t have any really great excuses. What with, well, a “lack of options” to put it nicely, and the convenient fact that you weren’t sure about your own sexuality in the first place? So yeah, I took advantage of the situation, it was a shitty thing to do, but like, ya know.”

“Surprisingly, I do know. You and I can talk about this later. I have much larger questions that need to be answered. The big two are: Why did you let an alcoholic drink, and why didn’t you tell me about Kate and Anne?”

There were heavy inhales from Minkowski and Lovelace. They shared a look, and Minkowski let her breath out before answering. “Eiffel, look, you need to understand-

“Commander. Why. Now.”

“We figured telling you would just bring more pain. They think you’re dead just like the rest of our families. And you already know that you have a restraining order, you can’t see her, there was no point in putting that pain back on you. It didn’t provide anything for you.”

“It would have given me a sense of who I was. It would have told me something about myself, like how terrible of a person I truly am.”

“But Eiffel you’re not terrible.”

“I wasn’t finished, Minkowski. It would have told me something about myself, like how terrible of a person I truly am. But it would have also given me a frame of reference on how much I have changed, Minkowski. You’re right, maybe I’m not so terrible anymore. Maybe a few years in space gave me some reference, gave me a chance to look at the shitshow that my life had become. Gave me a chance to get out of prison, that’s for damn sure. But here’s the thing, Commander. I went to get Anne that night because I cared for her. I accepted the jail time pretty willingly because I realized that I did everything I could for her, and I failed, and my everything wasn’t enough. But that doesn’t mean I ever stopped loving my little girl. Maybe she stopped loving me after I nearly killed her, and I wouldn’t blame her, but I did everything for her. And I may never see my Anne again, but for you guys? I would do anything. I care about you guys at least as much as I cared about my own child. And I’m not saying you guys are like my children, but I would do absolutely anything at all for you guys. That’s why I wanted to know. To remind me that I can actually care about people. Because yes, even though you told me about Hilbert and Maxwell and Kepler and the others that died that end right at the end there who, let’s be honest, were all kind of terrible, I cared about them too. I didn’t want anyone to have to die while we were up there, but they did, and we had to move on, and I know that making you guys explain what happened was hard for you guys. Because now I remember it!”

They sat for a minute, the realization of what exactly they had been unintentionally keeping from him beginning to dawn on him. “Eiffel, I…. I never realized just how much she meant to you. You never talked about her, we didn’t know,” Minkowski explained.

“Okay yeah but I’m not done. I answered my own damn question, now tell me why you let me, someone who you KNEW was a recovering alcoholic, drink. Why did you do this to me, why did you open yourselves to this possibility?”

This time all three of them turned red and looked at the counter. They all knew, and more importantly, they all had encouraged it and knew it had been wrong.

“I’m pretty sure you can blame me on this one too.” The two women glanced at Jacobi, who was sat in between them. “I spent years trusting and caring about a man who really, really loved his scotch. I’ll be honest, I’m not really a scotch man myself, I like a nice gin and tonic. But you know, when we took out Goddard, I went through my station, Alana’s, and Kepler’s office. But I wasn’t going to just let three and a half bottles of really nice scotch go to waste when I blew up the fuckin place. And…. Again, it was wrong. I shouldn’t have done it. But these two had gone somewhere with Pryce, and the number of nights I would’ve been drinking alone. I should not have done it and I’m really sorry about that.”

“It’s not just your fault Jacobi,” said Minkowski, looking back up from the counter where her gaze had returned. “I definitely had some nights where I was explaining things and just, reliving all the memories was too much, but explaining things after a bottle of wine was not too much. And I remember the first time you asked if you could have a glass, I was shocked you were asking. But I had had enough to drink that I couldn’t think it through hard enough to tell you no. And then the next time I just, poured one for you, without you even asking, which is definitely not what I should have done. But you had your memory erased, so I figured maybe this time would be a different scenario. Maybe this time it wouldn’t be a problem. And I suppose I don’t know if it was going down the path it went down before, but I guess neither of us were expecting you to all of a sudden become the old Eiffel again.”

“You sound like you’re disappointed I’m back to the old me.” He didn’t sound angry when he said it, he just sounded deflated, like the realization that the new Eiffel was someone they could hang out and drink with where the old Eiffel was someone they had to watch and take care of was finally materializing.

“Eiffel.” Lovelace didn’t look up, but her voice sounded like it was…. Almost cracking? Was Isabelle Lovelace about to cry? “Minkowski didn’t mean it that way and you know it. It hasn’t been easy for any of us. We have all been having to relive our losses every single day, and honestly? You were one of them too. And maybe we made the new Douglas Eiffel slightly different than  _ our _ Douglas Eiffel, but here’s the thing: we couldn’t make you perfectly back to you. We never knew all the experiences you had, even after reading through your personnel file. Not everything about a person is listed in those files. And even though all your pop culture references were obscure, and went over my head at least seventy percent of the time, they were still  _ you _ . And then they were all gone, you had to relearn all sorts of Star Trek and Star Wars and countless other things to quote, and there are ones that you haven’t made in a while, and it’s terrible only because none of us knew the true Douglas Eiffel well enough to know exactly what movie or TV show or comic the references came from. None of us were ever on your level, and that meant none of us could ever get you back to your level. So we had to make do. We had to make the best Doug Eiffel we could. And we did a shitty job. So Minkowski’s not disappointed you’re back to the old you. None of us are. But also we can’t be relieved because you’re going to remember everything we couldn’t tell you. Because they’re so uniquely Eiffel. And we’re disappointed in ourselves, because we let you down.”

They all sat looking at Lovelace, who kept her gaze down at the countertop, hands wrapped around a glass that had been sitting out. Eiffel didn’t know exactly what he wanted to say, but he could see the quick glances that Minkowski and Jacobi were giving him, clearly indicating that he had to say something at the very least in response to that outpouring of emotion from Lovelace. “Captain.” He waited for her to look up at him. “You shouldn’t be disappointed.” He looked at Minkowski and Jacobi as well. “None of you should be disappointed in what you’ve done since we got back. You took care of both me and Pryce in a time that was terrible and shitty and we couldn’t have asked for better people to take care of us. You did amazing with what you did know, and you should all be really proud that you guys were able to help us out so tremendously. Even if Pryce is a shitty person and even though she doesn't remember it I still don’t like her and thanks for not letting me think she was a wonderful human being because yeah no she’s not.” The others all started laughing. “And Hera?”

“Yes Eiffel?”

“I love you so much, sweetheart. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

If Hera had been human, she probably would have started crying. “I’m so glad you’re back, Eiffel.”

“Nothin to it. Now, who wants to watch Home Alone 2?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so I wrote this with a long pause in the middle so if I didn't finish something please tell me bc I don't proofread and don't have a beta so that's cool. This was written off of a prompt from http://lesbianjackrackham.tumblr.com/ about Eiffel regaining it memory and being painful, but like, I had to have a happy ending im sorry. I couldn't leave it at a sad ending. If you like it feel free to give kudos or comment or send me a message on tumblr or something. I've got a few other w359 fics in the works so ya know. Stay tuned, listeners.


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